by Rachel May
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Chapter 1: Piecing the Quilt
Notes
The Historic Textile and Costume Collection at The University of Rhode Island holds the three quilt tops: 1952.63.124 is thought to be the oldest, the one on which Susan and Hasell Crouch worked. The other two tops were begun by Susan and Hasell and finished by Franklin R. Cushman and his family members in the 1930s: 1952.63.125 & 1952.63.126. Franklin R. Cushman assembled the notebooks containing fabric scraps; he donated one and his colleague Grace Whaley donated the other to the University of Rhode Island. ACCESSION NUM 1952.64.127 & 1952.64.355.
My understanding of the family and history of the quilt tops was shaped in large part by the accession notes accompanying the collection, and Franklin R. Cushman’s correspondence with Miss Mary C. Whitlock at The University of Rhode Island.
The Elijah Williams Papers and Crouch-Cushman folder (MSS 9001-C, Box 15) in the Rhode Island Historical Society’s archives include hundreds of letters between Williams, Crouch, and Cushman family members, along with the notebooks of Franklin R. Cushman, who transcribed all the letters and commented with more information about the family, all of which contributed to my understanding of the family and this story.
Genealogical information was compiled from University of Rhode Island accession records, Ancestry.com, Findagrave.com, MSS 34, Series F, Vol. 1–8: Franklin Cushman’s Notebooks (Elijah Williams Papers, Rhode Island Historical Society).
A letter from Franklin R. Cushman explains: “The work on [the two bed quilts] was begun by our grandmother’s sister, a Charleston, S.C. bride in 1833. It is of block print calico with white borders. The color scheme was made by her husband, a young physician. After his death in 1936 [sic], the partly completed quilt was put away with all the pieces cut and ready to be put in place. The cut pieces were sewed in place in the summers 1930−1937, to make two quilts—twin bed size. Both Mrs. Crouch and her daughter had died leaving the quilts unfinished. Mrs. Crouch was in her ninetieth year
, her daughter, an artist, had just passed her nineteeth birthday.” Letter from Franklin R. Crouch to Miss Mary C. Whitlock, 8 March 1952, Cushman Collection, Accession Records, Historic Textile and Costume Collection, University of Rhode Island.
I’m grateful to Linda Baumgarten at Colonial Williamsburg for providing information about Franklin R. Cushman’s donations to that institution, and to the American Quilt Study Group, for your support of our presentation at the annual AQSG meeting, 2017; special thanks to editor Lynne Z. Bassett. Thank you to the Robert and Ardis James Foundation and Jill Wilson, for your generosity as panel sponsors, and to Jill especially, for your kindness and encouragement.
Thank you also to Dr. Christy Clark-Pujara, for allowing me to read a pre-publication copy of your book, Dark Work: The Business of Slavery in Rhode Island, and for sending a list of sources regarding Rhode Island slave-trading families and black sailors.
Primary Sources
Beecher, Catharine Esther. A Treatise on Domestic Economy. New York: Source Book Press, 1970, c1841.
“Letter from Susan to her sisters,” May 18, 1833, Series F: Franklin Cushman’s notebooks, vol. 1: 120, (Elijah Williams Papers, Rhode Island Historical Society).
“Letter from Susan to her sisters,” October 15, 1835, Series F: Franklin Cushman’s notebooks, vol. 2: 42, (Elijah Williams Papers, Rhode Island Historical Society).
Randolph, Mary. The Virginia Housewife, or, Methodical Cook: a Facsimile of an Authentic Early American Cookbook. New York: Dover Publications, 1993.
Simmons, Amelia. American Cookery: The First American Cookbook: A Facsimile of ‘American Cookery,’ 1796. New York: Dover Publications, 1984, c1958.
Secondary Sources
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Davis, Paul. “Unrighteous Traffick: Rhode Island and the Slave Trade,” The Providence Journal. Special Report, March 2006. Pettaquamscutt Historical Society, October 18, 2014.
Fitts, Robert K. “The Landscapes of Northern Bondage,” Inventing New England’s Slave Paradise: Master/Slave Relations in Eighteenth Century Narragansett, Rhode Island. Studies in African American History and Culture. Routledge, 1998. Pettaquamscutt Historical Society, October 18, 2014.
Franklin, Susan B. “Early History of Negroes in Newport, An Address Before the Union Congregational Church,” Newport, Rhode Island. Pettaquamscutt Historical Society, October 18, 2014.
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Melish, Joanne Pope. Disowning Slavery: Gradual Emancipation and “Race” in New England, 1780–1895. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2015.
Ousley, Laurie. “The Business of Housekeeping: The Mistress, the Domestic Worker, and the Construction of Class.” Legacy: A Journal of American Women Writers. 23.2 (June 2006), 132–143.
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Chapter 2: Eliza, Minerva, & Juba
Notes
For more on Harriet Jacobs, please see: Yellin, Jean Fagan. Harriet Jacobs: A Life, The Remarkable Adventures of the Woman Who Wrote Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. New York: Basic Civitas Books, 2004; Sommers, Samantha M., “Harriet Jacobs and the Recirculation of Print Culture,” The Journal of the Society for the Study of Multi-Ethnic Literature of the United States, Vol. 40, Iss. 3 (September 2015): 134-149; Thallam, Sarada, “African-American feminist discourses: understanding the writings of Harriet Jacobs and Adrienne Kennedy,” African Nebula, no. 6 (2013): 21+.
Quoted descriptions of the women on p. 35, starting with, “She had two petticoats…” are from Hagist, Don N. Wives, Slaves, and Servant Girls: Advertisements for Female Runaways in American Newspapers, 1770–1783. Yardley: Westholme, 2016.
The address, 6 Cumberland Street, is taken from letters addressed to Susan and Hasell, Elijah Williams Papers, Rhode Island Historical Society, Providence, RI.
p. 36, “collectively defy white authority . . .” from Gaspar, David Barry, and Darlene Clark Hine. More than Chattel: Black Women and Slavery in the Americas. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1996.
p. 41, “Slave narratives frequently refer to the fact that slaves learned how to use plant dyes expertly.” & quilt pattern names & p. 43 “A former Georgia slave” quote from Frye.
p. 44, “embodying a polyrhythmic . . .” Farris, Teresa Parker “Anna Williams,” knowlouisiana .org Encyclopedia of Louisiana, ed. David Johnson. Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities, 2010. Article published September 12, 2012. http://www.knowlouisiana.org/entry/anna-williams.
p. 72, Susan’s measurements and the analysis of her dresses were completed by students in Dr. Linda Welters’ Textile Merchandising and Design 570 class, Spring 2017, University of Rhode Island: Ananís Rentas Vega, Elizabeth Beasley, Nicole Dee-Collins, and Sarah Gilcrease.
Primary Sources
“Letter from Hilton to Jason Williams,” February 22, 1835, Series F: Franklin Cushman’s notebooks, vol. 2: 112, (Elijah Williams Papers, Rhode Island Historical Society).
“Letter from Hilton to Eliza Williams,” May, 7 1836. Series F: Franklin Cushman’s notebooks, vol. 2: 56, (Elijah Williams Papers, Rhode Island Historical Society).
“Letter from Susan to Eliza Williams,” July 2, 1835. Series F: Franklin Cushman’s notebooks, vol. 2: 23, (Elijah Williams Papers, Rhode Island Historical Society).
“Letter from Susan to her sisters,” May 18, 1833, Series F: Franklin Cushman’s notebooks, vol. 1: 119–120, (Elijah Williams Papers, Rhode Island Historical Society).
“Letter from Winthrop to Eliza Williams,” November 8, 1834, Series F: Franklin Cushman’s notebooks, vol. 7: 52, (Elijah Williams Papers, Rhode Island Historical Society).
“Letter from Susan to her sisters,” October 15, 1835, Series F: Franklin Cushman’s notebooks, vol. 2: 41–42, (Elijah Williams Papers, Rhode Island Historical Society).
“Letter from Susan to Eliza Williams,” December 10, 1835, Series F: Franklin Cushman’s notebooks, vol. 2: 52–54, (Elijah Williams Papers, Rhode Island Historical Society).
Stoney, Peter G. List and Memorandum Book: Names of Negroes at Calibogue 1829. South Carolina Historical Society manuscript, College of Charleston. 34/707.
White, Alonzo. List book of negroes for sale. 1853–1863. South Carolina Historical Society manuscript. 34/0350.
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Arnett, Paul and Joanne Cubbs, Eugene W. Metcalf, Jr. Gee’s Bend: The Architecture of the Quilt. Atlanta: Tinwood Books, 2006.
Bancroft, Frederic. Slave Trading in the Old South, intro. Michael Tadman. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1996.
Barber, Elizabeth Wayland. Women’s Work: The First 20,000 Years: Women, Cloth, and Society in Early Times. New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 1994.
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Clark-Pujara, Christy. Dark Work: The Business of Slavery in Rhode Island. New York: NYU Press, 2016.
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Kennedy, Cynthia M. Braided Relations, Entwined Lives: The Women of Charleston’s Urban Slave Society. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2005.
Matthews, Glenna. “Just a Housewife”: The Rise and Fall of Domesticity. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1982.
May, Rachel. Quilting with a Modern Slant: People, Patterns, and Techniques Inspiring the Modern Quilt Community. North Adams, MA: Storey Publishing, 2014.
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Register of Deeds Office, 101 Meeting Street, Charleston, South Carolina.
Robertson, Jean. “Oral History Interview with Nancy Crow,” December 18, 2002. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, https://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/interviews/oral-history-interview-nancy-crow-13095.
Simmons, Amelia. American Cookery: The First American Cookbook: A Facsimile of ‘American Cookery,’ 1796. New York: Dover Publications, 1984, c1958.